New Delhi: The unorganised workers constitute 93% of India’s workforce. The Welfare of Workers and providing Employment Security, Wage Security and Social Security to every Worker especially the Unorganised workers is the top priority for the Union Governemnt, said Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, the Union Minister of State(IC) for Labour and Employment on Tuesday (24th May 2016).

The Minister said that during the last two years for the benefit of work force the Government has amended the Bonus Act increasing the eligibility limit from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 21,000 and benefit ceiling from Rs. 3500 to Rs. 7000, Minimum Pension of Rs. 1000 per month in perpetuity which is benefiting more than 20 lakh pensioners. The Minister said, the Government has announced interest @ 8.8% to EPF subscribers for the year 2015-16 which is the highest rate of interest for any saving instrument in the country. Further, on March 29th, 2016 the government decided to credit interest to 9.23 Crore inoperative accounts of EPFO which was stopped by the previous Government in February, 2011.

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A scheme has been launched for eliminating the social evil of Bonded Labour, he added. On Reforms Through Technology ,The Minister said a unified Web Portal ‘Shram Suvidha Portal’ was laubnched on 16.10.2014, to bring transparency and accountability in enforcement of labour laws and ease complexity of compliance. It caters to four major Organizations under the Ministry of Labour, namely Office of Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), Directorate General of Mines Safety, Employees’ Provident Fund Organization; and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation.

The Minister said that the Government is implementing National Career Service (NCS) Project for transforming and strengthening the public employment services in the country with an aim to bring job seekers, employers and training providers on a common platform with efficient use of information technology.

The NCS Portal dedicated to the nation in July, 2015 has successfully registered over 3.5 crore candidates and all the 9 lakh establishments having a Labour Identification Number are also registered.